What really happened to holiday apartment where Madeleine McCann went missing nearly two decades ago
The apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal has struggled to shake its macabre history
Back in 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal and we still don’t know what happened to her.
In the wake of bombshell new revelations in last week’s Channel 4 documentary Madeleine McCann: The Unseen Evidence, interest has been reignited in the apartment McCann disappeared from.
Would anyone want to live there after what happened? Is it still a hotspot for ghoulish true crime fans?
Key takeaways from Channel 4’s Madeleine McCann documentary
McCann has been back in the headlines after a joint production from The Sun and Channel 4 highlighted previously unseen evidence on a hard drive, found at a property owned by prime suspect Christian Brueckner.
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The hard drive contained sick fantasies about abducting and abusing children, along with records of Skype conversations where Brueckner said he’d like to ‘capture something small and use it for days’.
Some of the content of the hard drive could potentially help link Brueckner to McCann’s disappearance - although it is circumstantial.
For instance, he is seen pictured at the Arade Dam, 35 miles from Praia da Luz, which was searched in 2023 as part of the McCann investigation.
An insurance document also places him at a festival in Orgiva, Spain in 2008, where one of his friends alleged he said McCann ‘didn’t even scream’, implying he abducted her.
What happened to the apartment where Madeleine McCann disappeared?
5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva was originally sealed off and classified as a crime scene, but a year later it was rented out to families again.
However, as you can imagine, business was a lot quieter following McCann’s disappearance.
Lesley Peeke-Vout, a Brit who owns a nearby property, told the Irish Independent in 2012: “Very few people rent 5A. I haven't seen anyone in it since last year.
“The locals don't like to talk about what happened in 2007. They think it damages their business.”
The whole apartment complex suffered following McCann’s disappearance, with the original owner, British tour operator Mark Warner, attempting to sue his insurers for lost earnings, before going out of business in 2015.
The complex is now under new management. As recently as 2020, reviews on TripAdvisor still mention that 'Madeline McCann was abducted here'.
The apartment was eventually put up for sale for £250,000, but given the property’s macabre history, it only sold for half the asking price at £113,000 in 2017.
The Telegraph reports there were even distasteful ‘Maddie Tours’ around the area at one point, but the new owner has put up high hedges and a large wooden gate to keep gawkers away.
The new owner told the Sun at the time: “I’ve been offered money by the whole world [to visit the apartment] but I’m not interested.
“I don’t think that’s very fair to the McCann family or the people of Praia da Luz, upsetting everybody – it’s terrible. It happened a long time ago and I don’t have any opinions on it.”
Topics: Madeleine McCann, True Crime, Crime
Simon Fearn